Outsource the Headaches

Company: Gateway Bank of Southwest Florida, Sarasota. Bank has three branches in the Sarasota-Bradenton market.

Executive: Cherie Mooney, senior vice president, human resources

Industry: Banking

Number of employees: 40 spread through three branches

Health insurance challenge: Cherie Mooney says Gateway, a 5-year-old bank with $213 million in assets, is in a good spot to deal with any health care law confusion. That's because the bank uses a professional employer organization, or a PEO, which handles everything from payroll to 401(k) work to health insurance.

Gateway uses TriNet, a California-based national PEO that bought Lakewood Ranch-based Gevity in 2009. Gateway previously outsourced the work to Gevity.

“The PEO is responsible for researching and implementing” any health care law changes, says Mooney. “Hopefully that will make it a smooth transition for us.”

Gateway, through TriNet, pays 100% of bank employees' health insurance benefits and 50% toward dependents. Employees, further, can choose among nine plans for medical coverage and four each for dental and vision. Says Mooney: “That's a very rich plan.”

Still, while Mooney takes comfort in the security of a PEO, questions linger for the bank. One question is whether TriNet will raise the fee it charges Gateway — and other clients — for doing more work under the health care law. TriNet charges Gateway a monthly fee per employee, says Mooney, and that rate has gone up only 2% over six years. Mooney says she hasn't heard about a rate hike yet.

Another question: When TriNet reports the options to Gateway, which Mooney says should happen sometime in June, what if it the best plans are a downgrade from the package the bank currently offers employees? Mooney says she doesn't expect that to happen, but if it does Gateway will work hard to protect its current plans.

Mooney, overall, intends to lean heavily on TriNet through the heath care law transition process. “We can get all the things a big bank offers,” with a PEO says Mooney, “even though we are all a small organization.”